Daring Bakers – Cardamom and honey pudding

Ok, so this didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to as you can see. This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was to make a British steamed suet pudding. Using suet was optional, I ended up not using it because I had to drive to the other side of the city to check if one of the few organic butchers (we only buy organic meat) had it (ok, I admit, I was also reluctant to use suet in baking). Instead of suet I used coconut fat. We were pretty free to choose our recipe as long as the pudding was steamed. I used the recipe our host Esther gave for a sponge suet pudding. To flavor the pudding I used freshly ground cardamom (about 10 pods which makes about 1/2 teaspoon), the flavor was pretty intensely cardamom-y but I don’t know if you would get that with 1/2 tea spoon pre-ground as well. I poured about 2 tbs of honey in the pudding pan before I put in the dough (as in treacle pudding). I let the pudding steam for 3 hours. After inverting the pudding it didn’t come out completely unfortunately and I was left with what you see in the picture. Good thing I used a pretty plate so that the picture has some esthetic appeal 😉 My pudding turned out looking so golden brown because I used a special beet sugar (delicious btw and fits the bill in locally produced instead of cane sugar from Mauritania).

Don’t know what the reason or reasons were why my pudding refused to come out in one piece. Maybe because I used an stainless steel salad bowl instead of a regular pudding pan. Or maybe I should have buttered the pan more, or maybe my baking powder was too potent, or maybe I made the dough too wet. Who knows… What I do know is that the combination of honey and cardamom is delicious and that I like the texture of steamed pudding a lot. Not too sure if I would be making it again as it has to be on the stove for such a long time but who knows…

Type 2 puddings – Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type.

(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour

(1/4 teaspoon) salt

(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder

(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs

(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar

(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)

(1) large egg

(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.

2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.

3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk

4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.

5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours

6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.